Ten Surefire Ways to Sabotage Your Career

Ten Surefire Ways to Sabotage Your Career

You Ignore Colleagues' Messages You don't respond to your colleagues' voice mails, texts and emails within the business day.

You may bring the best technology talent to your company, but raw skills alone aren't enough to guarantee a successful career. In fact, there are a number of undesirable "soft skill" traits and behaviors that could very well earn you a pink slip. Even though the job market is improving, anyone who's looking for a position after getting fired (as opposed to being downsized) will be at a disadvantage compared to candidates who have a clean employment record. So consider the following classic ways that otherwise qualified professionals sabotage their own careers. Some blunders amount to simple carelessness, while others come down to a lack of personal decorum. In many cases, these mistakes can be avoided by remembering to treat others the way you want to be treated. These "career killers" were compiled from a number of resources, including Lifehack.org, a life and work advice site, and NanceRosenblog.com from Nance Rosen, author of Speak Up! & Succeed: How to Get Everything You Want in Meetings, Presentations and Conversations (Pegasus Media World/available now).